I wish Fuji would do more to promote the use of film. There is a large and dedicated community of lifestyle, wedding and portrait photographers who are committed to shooting film, mostly in medium format cameras like the Contax 645, and getting scans done on the fantastic Fuji Frontier. 400H was super popular with this crowd but because of steady price increases more and more folks use Portra films, myself included. I wish Fuji would have found a way to adapt to the smaller market for films like 3000B, and continued to advance the scanner tech, instead of just abandoning the market bit by bit. Hopefully Kodak Aleris, Truesense or someone else can make a scanning solution for the future. If they want to keep making film, they need to facilitate it’s use, and means the hybrid workflow.

Clint

I think that if there truly were a ‘large and dedicated’ group of users you wouldn’t be reading announcements like this….

Mr. Eastman

There most certainly could be a ‘large and dedicated’ group of users. It’s just not large enough to keep a *very* large coating machine running. I’m not disputing Fuji’s decision to drop those emulsions, I’m saying people have forgotten (if they ever knew to begin with) the enormous volume of film that was being coated back in the day. And while demand could wax and wane (and wane), once you build a coating machine that has a ‘minimum miles of coating for profitability’ threshold, there it is. Film will always be with us because there will always be people willing to pay for it. The scale will change, that’s all. Selection too, probably. People just don’t know how complex is even the lamest film.

Clint

Mr Eastman….enough of the semantics! Who cares if you think it’s a ‘large and dedicated’ group of users…point is Fuji disagrees with you or they wouldn’t be constantly discontinuing film products!

Hey, I like film…reminds me of the old days but the writing is on the wall. Sure, you will probably be able to buy it for quite some time….but your choice of film will be extremely limited and what film is available will cost you a small fortune.

Spica

Shit! Sorry for being rude, but what else can we say? Fuji please, double your films price, I would still be buying it, but do not abandon it. My Hasselblad is crying (not talking about its successors). I have already bought a few packs of Provia X 400 but where will be MF in the near future for those who cannot afford digital backs? I will end up only looking into waist level finder 🙁

sperdynamite

Portra 400 and 160 are truly excellent and versatile emulsions. Even Ektar can be a fantastic 120 film. It’s not like looking at a chrome on a light table, but I’ll take a 6×6 scan of Portra 160 in a Fuji Frontier over a digital file any day.

Spica

Yes, they are, although I prefer Fuji films. Kodak seems to be very “warm” in colour to me. But hey, Ektar has fantastic grain and sharpness and I have a few rolls in the fridge as well! I love shooting on slide films, Provia X 400 for everyday handheld and Velvia 50 for soft lighted landscapes and stills. But nevertheless, all this is only swan song of the world as we knew it. More and more people never saw anything else than digital, never focused on a ground glass, never held film strip against the sun…

Mike

Honestly, I don’t get this collective panic that runs through the film community (of which I count myself a member) every time a film gets discontinued.

Fuji makes two great C41 colour films (160NS and 400H, while Kodak makes three (Ektar, Portra 160, and Portra 400). In addition, Ilford offers a complete line of B&W films, from very slow and fine grained (PanF+) to ultra-high speed (Delta 3200), and everything in between. All of these are (at least) available in 35mm and 120, and Kodak even offers 220 Portra 160 and 400. Several are available in sheet film, too.

Yes, the reversal film market has virtually collapsed, but you can still get Provia 100F, and Velvia 50. I recently purchased 150 rolls of E6 film in 35mm and 120 and sufficient chemistry for all of them, and that will be the last E6 purchase for me. As nice as slides are, I could see myself shooting digitally for this type of photography, in place of E6.

Colour neg film is still widely used in the wedding and portrait fields, not to mention in motion pictures, and thus has a long life ahead of it. B&W neg film isn’t going anywhere for a long, long time.

In the event that film disappears entirely (which, to be honest, is a long, long way off), I’ll put my Leica and my Mamiya on the shelf, and pick up my Fuji and go make photographs. Yes, I’d prefer to make them on real film, but I’m not going to spend my days worrying about some hypothetical date in the hypothetical future where I can’t get the stuff anymore.

I shoot LF reversal only and yes I get my 8×10 sheets from B&H… but it would be good to have another reversal film than just provia and velvia. And i would be shooting 20×24 too if they had reversal reversal film available that didn’t require a $15K order or something 🙂

The National Enquirer

This ‘news’ isn’t exactly ‘news.’ Neopan 400 and Neopan Presto are the same film. One is the Japan domestic market (Presto) and the other is the export version. So it’s nothing new; we knew this was happening last year. But Fujicolor Pro 400H is basically the export version of the Asian market Pro 400. Fujicolor Pro 400H has not been discontinued and is still available in 120 (http://www.fujifilm.com/products/professional_films/color_negativefilms/pro_400h/)

loppa

bah with the new fuji xe2 and xt1 film is really dead, go on digital and fuji!

While I love Fuji film–just bought another few bricks of Acros–I can’t blame them for discontinuing emulsions. They’re not a non-profit organization, and film production requires making huge runs that are only profitable with significant sales. At Photo Plus expo a Fuji rep confided that when he began working for the company in the late 80s his three-state territory produced about $23million in annual film sales. The year we spoke his seven state territory produced $8600 in film sales.

i am confused. ist there a fuji pro 400 film beside the fuji pro 400H? i hope they don’t discontinued the pro 400H.

malchick743

Pro 400 is an old emulsion for JDM back in 1998-99 which got updated once back in 2004-05

It’s quite normal to discontinue this one since the Pro 400H is still available (both JDM and export) in both 120 and 135

Ratty Mouse

More great “support” for film from Fujifilm. I swear if someone could make a film to compete with Acros, then I’d dump using Fujifilm film. They are THE worst company for film right now. Even Kodak is better.

I switched to from Acros to Arista (Freestyle photo) and have never regretted it!

ozfilm

it looks like they are announcing the cancellation of Pro400 but not Pro400H as it is listed on the fuji site as the recommended alternative to Pro400. Pro400 was not available in the the US etc only Pro400H. The good news for black and white fans is that numerous brands of B/W film exist and have adjusted to market conditions i.e Ilford, foma, Rollei/Agfa and the best selling Kodak Tri-x continues to sell well.

Camaman

Time is coming to dump my M3 kit…

Mike

I’ll give you $100 for it. After all, film is dying, so you should really get what you can NOW before it’s worthless.

Camaman

🙂

regular

Today, camera manufacturers are shifting away from compact cameras.
Some companies are moving away from DSLR (olympus, pentax, fuji, etc), and some analysts are already seeing a slowdown in the mirrorless market.

When all this happens, and the digital market is shrinked to smartphone accessories, I will continue to use my film camera and buy rolls from the small companies dedicated in silver-halide photography.

Those small companies manage to offer film rolls for cheaper than Fuji.

Joaquim

Film cameras will become mere collectibles ! I am still shocked that the 400X were discontinued !